Remember Me
by gem2422
Summary: Ichigo lost more than his powers that day. Orihime has trouble accepting it.
1. Chapter 1

**Starting yet another one, and I know I saw a similar idea somewhere but I can't find the story again sorry. If anyone finds it let me know so I can give them credit. It's changing up the story a little bit. It takes off after the Aizen arc after Ichigo lost his powers. I'll update more soon, hope you like it.**

It had been five months, three days and it killed me every second. Sitting in class everyday had been horrible. I leaned over onto my desk and groaned.

"Are we boring you Ms. Inoue?"

I jumped up in my seat, "I'm sorry." Everyone looked over at me for a moment, Tatsuki gave a concerned glance and turned back I glanced around to see everyone begin to look back at the front and continue with class. I looked over at the window to see that he didn't even look. He just stared out the window.

Since it happened that's all he seemed to do, stare aimlessly like he was lost. Trying to find something.

His eyes looked so tired, his hair was stuck in front of his face covering much of his cheeks. The orange locks glistened in the sun; I missed him.

He must have noticed me watching, he turned his eyes slightly to find mine. I quickly turned towards the front of the class.

_"Inoue, you okay?" I nodded._

_"Ishida? Did I do that?" He was shaking, he didn't know what happened, what he became. I was just so glad to have him back, he was back. Without even realizing what I'd done I ran up to him and hugged him._

_"Or-Orihime?" He looked down to me and I lifted my eyes that were filled with tears._

_"I'm just happy that you back Kurosaki-kun." I smiled and looked back down in embarrassment. I felt his hand lift my chin back up. His eyes were tearing up too._

_"I'm sorry Orihime." Before I could say anything he pressed his lips to mine. I melted._

"Inoue. Please pay attention. I cannot say it again."

I looked around, I lost focus again. Today was clearly not my best day. Luckily it was only a few minutes left of class, I waited anxiously for the dismissal bell. I was sure to focus for the last few minutes to make up for not paying attention most of the day.

I got up from my seat and packed up my things.

"Bit distracted today Orihime?" Tatsuki nudged me on the shoulder, she knew what could distract me so horribly.

I being full of embarrassment, laughed uncontrollably.

"Are we still going for ice cream with the others today?" I nodded and looked around to see our usual friends suddenly around us.

"Sorry I don't think I can make it. I have...chores to do." Ishida looked at me, I knew that look. It meant a hollow.

"Too bad Ishida, next time though alright?" Tatsuki was her usual cheeriness. She had an easier time getting over everything. We never spoke about what had happened, I wasn't even sure she remembered it. But Ichigo told me what happened when I left, how they got in a fight over what happened. Everything changed after we got back though.

_"Please Ichigo, please protect them. Tatsuki, Kiego, everyone please Ichigo make sure they're alright."_

_"I promise." He lifted my chin again, and gave me a quick kiss. How I loved that; things were going to be different, I could feel it._

_I nodded and he walked away with Unohana to go and protect our home._

_The next I saw him, he looked so different, his hair was longer, he looked taller and more grown up. And so sad._

_"Kurosaki-san." I'm not sure why I was suddenly so formal but I wanted to be sure it was him._

_He looked at us and smiled, he had done something but none of us understood it right away. He got up and walked towards us. Then he collapsed to the ground. We ran to him but Urahara told us to stop. He explained that Ichigo knew this would happen. That he planned it this way in order to win._

_We took him back to Urahara's shop where he went back to his body, and lay there for days._

_Urahara explained that he lost his shinigami powers, and that he knew that would happen. However it was much more than that, Ichigo would lose all memories of being a shinigami too._

_"He can't Urahara. He won't remember us. He won't know anything."_

_Ishida looked at me, he knew what I meant._

_"He will remember you but as it was before all of this. His mind make up for the time he lost but it'll be like the last year was a blur. He won't remember Soul society, and I'm sorry but that means Rukia and Renji and everyone else. Including myself."_

_I looked over to see Rukia with his eyes to the ground. She looked sad but understanding._

_"Please Urahara there must be something you can do. Can we tell him about all of it? Would he remember that way?"_

_"I'm sorry Orihime, if you were to tell him any of it it would only make it worse. His mind would reject it. It was cause harm to him. In time he might recover some of his memories but I'm afraid it's not a good chance."_

_"No one in this room is to mention anything about what happened this year." We all turned to see Ichigo's dad standing in the doorway. None of us had even known he was there to begin with._

_"I understand the situation but he can never know."_

I smiled as we walked down the street to the ice cream shop. Chad and Kiego were talking about something while Honsho and Mizuiro tried to have me joined in their topic. I smiled and laughed and tried my best to join in, but my focus was stuck on Tatsuki and Ichigo who were walking behind us. Lately I had been thinking back to that time more than ever. I waited so long for him to finally say those words for him to then forget everything. His life. He did such great things and saved so many people and yet we were supposed to hide it from him, but I guess we already hid it for five months, and three days.

"Orihime." Tatsuki called my name and I turned to see her running up to me.

"Your still talking about going to University in Tokyo at Tokai right?" I nodded. "Ichigo said he applied to that one too. Weird huh? Maybe I need to apply there too, we can all go to school together." We reach up and threw her arms over both of our shoulders, dragging us closer together.

"Ha, yeah." I burst out laughing again, not sure how to react.

"What are you thinking of taking Kurosaki-kun?"

"Oh, uh not sure. Medicine I guess. Not really sure what I wanna be though."

He still looked so lost and confused. Not like his old self at all. This was one of the only times I had spoken to him since... everything.

"You alright Ichigo?" Tatsuki said.

"Sorry, what?"  
"Are you alright?"

"Oh yeah just, thinking, I guess."

In the last week he looked more lost than usual. He didn't talk much anymore, he always seemed tired and distant and even with Tatsuki; his best friend, he seemed to want to stay away from her.

When we got into the ice cream shop I got over excited, Tatsuki had told me that it would be a place I would love and she was right. Every weird and delicious flavor I could think of: bean paste and chocolate, eggnog and carrots, I couldn't even decide. After we all sat down we talked about the school year being done, and what we were all planning after school. I was planning to go to Tokyo mostly to get away from him, it wouldn't help if he would follow me there. It hurt that he hardly knew me, it hurt that I lost my chance with him, and it hurt that he seemed so distant. But I had planned to forget about him, being near him like this everyday was unbearable; the thought of being able to get away and forget him had helped me. Now that to would be taken away.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ichigo P.O.V._

I felt exhausted, I needed to leave. I stood up without even thinking about it.

"Sorry guys I need to get home." Without even waiting for a response I slowly made my way to the door.

I thought I saw Tatsuki get out of her seat but I was so tired I could hardly see straight.

I didn't mean to seem rude I just felt to exhausted to stay any longer. Everyday felt like a blur, I couldn't focus, I couldn't think, and it felt like something was missing.

"I'm Home."

I closed the door behind me.

"Welcome home big brother." Yuzu greeted me with her usual smile.

"Hi Yuzu, Karin?" She looked up at me from her book.

"Yeah?" I tossed them both some chocolates that Tatsuki had bought them at the ice cream shop.

"From Tatsuki." Their smiles lit up I made my way upstairs to my room when I heard the familiar wailing of my insane father. I lifted my fist just perfectly to hit him in his face behind me and then kicked him in the stomach. I waved back to my sisters who pretended like nothing happened and kept walking up the stairs.

I flung myself onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling, it felt familiar but then again it was laying in a bed of course it felt familiar. I looked over at the closet, I expected something to happen for some reason.

Lately I'd gotten some horrible feeling that I was missing something so important, something I needed to know. Sometimes when walking I would see something, the air in front of me would look blurry, the longer I'd focus the harder it was to see. But whether it was my imagination or not it felt so important.

Before I knew it I had fallen asleep.

_"Stop Ichigo, it's over." Was that Ishida? I hardly knew the guy I'm not sure why he would be in my dream. He was grabbing my arm, I was holding something. A-a sword? It was a strange dream for sure, but I had no control over myself, I held the blade over the throat of a man? I think it was a man, he was so pale and didn't look human at all. Ishida continued to talk to me but I couldn't understand what he was saying. I tried to escape his grip, the plunge the sword into the man but before I knew it I threw the sword into Ishida's chest._

I through myself up as I panted and wiped the sweat off my face. My hair stuck to my face and I was having trouble breathing. That dream felt so real, but it was crazy. I threw myself back onto the pillow and turned to look at the clock. 11:43pm. I'd slept most of the afternoon. I walked down the stairs towards the kitchen and opened the fridge.

[Didn't want to wake you, here's your supper. -Yuzu] I opened up the container and sat down at the table to eat.

My dreams had been getting stranger and stranger, this whole week I'd had them and always remembered them completely. A girl with black hair, running through some sort of cave, a man with spiked hair and bells, a talking stuffed animal. They were all so strange, and in many of them I was fighting. Did they mean something? Maybe a metaphor for something.

As I ate I felt like I was being watched, it felt like some presence was in the room. I looked around to be sure, I saw that the air in front of me was blurry again. I must be losing my mind.

This exhaustion must be making me see things.


	3. Chapter 3

**Probably have a couple more updates tonight, I'm a writing machine. It's amazing what you accomplish when your avoiding studying for finals haha Anyways I was planning on bringing it up earlier but if you didn't guess, I kept Ichigo looking how he did after he beat Aizen (taller long hair) I just figured that it worked with how I was writing it.**

Orihime:

"I'm getting kind of worried about him. He's been acting stranger than usual lately."

I brought out the tea and sat in the living room next to Tatsuki, I understood why she was worried he did seem more out of it than usual.

"I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it Tatsuki."

We sat there drinking our tea, neither one of us wanting to say what we knew.

After we realized how late it was Tatsuki went home, I walked her out and we talked about what we should do on our day off tomorrow. "I'll see you tomorrow Tatsuki."

We waved at each other and I was about to close the door and someone put their foot in the way. I looked up to see that it was Rukia.

"It's been awhile Rukia." I smiled and gave her a hug as Renji, and Toshiro trailed in behind her.

"How have you been Orihime, I'm sorry we haven't been around much."

"Ha it's fine, really. I've been so busy here with school and everything. There's even a new ice cream place down the street. That's gonna take up my entire life I think. Ha ha ha."

She smiled, she knew I couldn't hide anything from her. She gave me a 'we'll talk later' look.

"So then, did you miss me too?" Renji gave me a nudge on the arm.

"Haha of course I did and Toshiro of course. Why didn't Rangiku come I made some new recipes that I think she'll like."

He turned his gaze to avoid mine. "She- uh hasn't been doing to well since Gin died."

I looked over at him confused, I knew there was some sort of history with them but I never really knew anything about him. Poor Rangiku, it would take a lot for her to be so upset. She's one of the toughest people I know.

"So how has everything been over here Orihime? Is Ichigo doing okay?"

I knew Renji missed his friend and that he would be the first to ask.

"Still acts weird, looks tired all the time. Everything else has been great though."

They all looked at one another, did that mean something.

"Did something happen?" I asked, Rukia gave me a sad smile.

"Sorry Orihime, I don't think so but I've been doing a bit of -surveillance. And I think he looked at me."

"How? I thought he can't see you?"

"He can't and I'm not even sure he knows what he's seeing but it's happened twice now, he's looked directly at me, only for a second and then turned back to what he was doing."

I could hardly contain my excitement, it would make sense since he's been acting so strange lately. Maybe he would get his memory back.

"So what should we do then?" I asked.

"Nothing." Toshiro got up and joined the rest of us.

"He can't know anything Orihime; if he finds out on his own maybe it will be different but you know we can't tell him. And we don't even know if anything is coming back, for all we know it's a coincidence."

"We should let Chad and Ishida know at least. I'll give them a call."

As I picked up the phone and dialed Rukia walked up to me. "I know how much it means to you to have him back but if it could hurt him we can't risk it Orihime." I looked back at her and nodded, my eyes tearing just a bit. I turned back to hide it.

By the time the others made it over, Renji had told me everything going on with Soul Society: Several of the Vizards had been made captains and lieutenants and given pardons for the past. Aizen was sentenced to basically and eternity in prison, Urahara had also been given a pardon but chose to stay here.

"So there's a chance he could be getting better?" Chad seemed more enthusiastic between the two of them but I could see the hope on Ishida's face too.

"Not exactly, it's just a possibility."

"So I assume everything goes on as usual right?" Ishida of course knew the answers right away.

We talked about it some more but all revolving around the same point- he might be getting better but nothing can change. I eventually turned my focus somewhere else. I walked over to the kitchen to make some more tea and also to get away from everyone. I felt like I had become more bitter in the last months, not purposely but just because of lonliness. Chad and Ishida were the only ones I truly could talk to, but we all avoided each other as best as we could. Ishida would run off and Chad would stay quiet, and me... I would just laugh and pretend nothing was bothering me.

Tatsuki, Kiego, Honsho, and Mizuiro must have known but when we came back and all avoided the subject I suppose they just avoided bringing it up.

"Are you alright Inoue?" I jumped out of my own spaced out world and saw Ishida staring directly at me.

I nodded and laughed, "Of course I'm fine. Oh no no don't worry about me Ishida I'm perfectly fine, just making some tea."

As I took out the cups to put on the tray, he grabbed my hand and stopped me.

"Inoue, I know it's bothering you. I was there remember. I know what happened."

I knew that, he was there in Hueco Mundo, if there was anyone who would understand it was him, but I couldn't burden him with my problems. Nothing had changed.

"Really Ishida, I'm perfectly fine. Thanks for being so concerned though."

I walked back with the tea to the living room, where the same topic was being discussed. It seemed endless but eventually it ended.

Renji went to stay with Urahara and since Rukia couldn't stay and Ichigo's, she decided to stay here with Toshiro. I left them with a set bed and everything they would need for the night and went to sleep. It was a bit of a tiring day.


	4. Chapter 4

Orihime:

"We came up with an idea." Rukia had burst out with so much excitement during breakfast.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well we can at least find out if it was me he was seeing. He doesn't need to know who I am just if he sees my face and recognizes it, it means he can see souls. That way we can at the very least get an answer, without harming his memory in any way."

"Do you mean wear a gigai?"

"Exactly." Toshiro joined in. "I'll stay here though and let Rukia just go with you."

It seemed like a bit of weird idea but I went along with it. And called Tatsuki to meet up with Ichigo and us somewhere, I told her who was coming along and she sounded excited but I told her not to mention anything. It was the closest we had come to bringing up the subject of what happened.

We met up in the park and waited for them, I didn't have much hope that this plan would prove anything but I had a small glimmer of hope that it could.

"Yo Orihime!" I turned around to see Tatsuki and Ichigo waving over at us. I looked over at Rukia who looked like she was going to run to hug him, she hadn't really seen him in months besides keeping an eye on him every once in a while.

Ichigo looked at us and smiled and then asked. "Who is this?"

I could see the hope fall right off of her. "Sorry this is my friend Rukia."

Tatsuki looked confused, since she didn't know the full story she probably didn't realize Ichigo wouldn't recognize Rukia but I saw the hope leave her as well.

"So what did you wanna go do Orihime?" Ichigo put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky, he looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"I was thinking we went for ice cream yesterday so let's go for crepes today."

Tatsuki burst out laughing. "Orihime, all this food is going to go to your boobs, but I guess you already knew that." Rukia burst out laughing and I made an unimpressed face at her. Ichigo chuckled a bit and seemed to relax a bit.

"Well I'm always up for crepes, let's go Orihime." He started walking and I ran up to him I looked back at Rukia who smiled at me. I smiled back and kept up with Ichigo.

"So why crepes?" I looked over at his weird question. Was he trying to make small talk.

"Well n-noreason really I just thought we could continue the tradition of sweets. You have to get it with sauerkraut and whipped cream. Maybe some strawberries."

He stopped and looked at me. "I don't think I can handle that one Orihime." We both laughed and kept walking.

It was a nice day, kind of like it used to be, and he seemed more comfortable around me, like he recognized me or something. After crepes we went and sat around in the park for a while, Rukia picked up her phone and gave me a look. It was time to go, we thanked them for the day and quickly walked away. I missed days like that.


End file.
